Review of The Legend of Zorro (2005) by Markb. — 04 Jan 2006

It's expected that the second half of this sequel to the 1998 Antonio Banderas/ Catherine Zeta-Jones summer popcorn flick about the famous Old California hybrid of Robin Hood and Batman would have the feel of a Wild, Wild West episode once the plot kicks into gear.

However, I really wasn't expecting the first half, which deals with the Z-man's difficulties adjusting to marriage and fatherhood, to play so much like an installment of Everybody Loves Raymond! (it definitely helps that neither Patricia Heaton nor Zeta-Jones are able to stop being extremely appealing, desirable women no matter how much nagging their characters do.

) Banderas' charming, often comic performance, a cute one by child actor Adrian Alonso as Zorro's son and pint-sized counterpart, an amusing one by Rufus Sewell, who plays his villainous role as a Hispanic Christopher Walken, some imaginative PG-rated methods of disposing of the bad guys and a number of rather audacious parallels to contemporary politics and warfare place this clearly in the 'guilty pleasure' category; like the original, it's notably longer than it has any right to be (perhaps Steven Spielberg executive producing both of them is a factor?) .

..but The Legend of Zorro provides enough consistent fun to assure that you won't be catching any Z's while watching it.